The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change. Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control. But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

I finally managed to get my hands on the book all YA bloggers have been talking about – Red Queen. It is the first in a new dystopian trilogy by Victoria Aveyard, and has just topped the New York Times’ bestseller list.

Firstly, can we all take a moment to appreciate the cover? It’s fantastic. And once you start to read the book, the colours used on the cover really tie in with the plot. There are two societies in this series, and they are separated by the colour of their blood. The Silvers – obviously with silver blood – control everything. They are elite and important and they have special skills (like being able to control fire and metal). And then there are the Reds. They are the dirt underneath your shoe. They are poor and unimpressive and they don’t have any special skills.

Now I did hear some negative reviews of this book before I read it, and all I can say is those people are lame:

Sure, it’s a little similar to other dystopian YA, but it’s pretty difficult to differentiate dystopian YA at the moment. It’s usually got two different societies (poor and rich), and the main character is usually from the poor society, and then somehow finds a way to infiltrate that upper class society and shut it down. For example, The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig, The Hunger Games, Divergent etc etc.

Mare Barrow, the main character, despises the Silvers. But then she unlocks a power that she didn’t even realise she had, and she’s thrust into their world. Instead of being killed, Mare is betrothed to the Prince and joins a rebellion to overthrow the government. And let’s not forget to mention that there’s a huge, ridiculous character twist at the end that I would never have predicted.

Mare really grows over the course of the novel. Sure, I’d like her to have a bit more of a backbone, but in her situation, it’s understandable that she doesn’t. And hey, she’s got two more books to develop it. She is very intelligent and intuitive, and her sass and quick wit is refreshing in the novel. It’s not one of those books where everything just seems to work for her – there are times in the novel where I think she might lose someone she loves. There’s a lot to unfold over the next two books.

I recommend this book to YA readers, but also to fantasy readers. It’s a quick read – I read it in one day.

Like this:

A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcraft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives.

But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity – that she, in fact, is Lydia – their world comes crashing down once again.

As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, Sarah finds herself tortured by the past – what really happened on that fateful day one of her daughters died?

I heard rave reviews about this title, but I must admit that I was really disappointed. Overall, the book isn’t as ‘haunting’ or ‘gripping’ as described. I kept waiting for a twist or for a shocking scene where I’d be desperate to get to the end, but this just didn’t happen. The ‘revelation’ at the end isn’t really that shocking because most of the book is pretty predictable and I saw it coming.

The book is from the point of view of the mother, Sarah, and she’s just not a likeable character. She has too much internal dialogue and she doesn’t let the reader realise anything for themselves. She’s also really naïve and delicate, and she asks too many rhetorical questions. She comes across as slightly neurotic, and the reader doesn’t like her enough to disregard her flaws.

I quite liked the husband, Angus. He was authentic and his societal reactions were realistic and effective to the plot. You are positioned to hate him in the novel because his daughter is supposedly ‘scared of him’, but it’s quite clear that he’s not the bad guy.

The setting in the novel helps to isolate the characters and force the reader to really focus on the plot and the relations between Angus and Sarah. I think the author did well to pace the story so that it didn’t move too quickly but it didn’t move too slowly either.

I do think it was missing something – the story just didn’t grab me. Maybe it was the characters and the circumstances. Maybe it was the setting. Or maybe it was the farfetched nature of the premise that disappointed me.

Discover the world of Harry High, Larry Low and Even Steven. A fun series of picture books that engage children while teaching them through rhyme and repetition.

This book is beautifully illustrated and has a really cheerful tone to it. The colours complement each other really well and the pages have been designed so that nothing is too dominating, nor is anything missed. I like that the illustrations and words are on different pages, instead of usual children’s books where the words are over the top of the illustrations.

The rhyme and repetition will definitely engage children and maintain their interest, and the colours will intrigue them and want them to re-read this book.

The only negative thing to say about this book is that I think there should be some colour or illustrations on the pages with the text. There are beautiful colours and illustrations on every second page, but on the page with the words, there’s just a white background. If you’re reading this to a child and they’re not old enough to read the words, you won’t be able to maintain their interest when you fall on the pages with words.

I suggest having some small background illustrations on those pages so that it doesn’t distract the child from the words/rhymes, but gives the little ones something to look at to keep them engaged.

I would recommend this book to anyone with a young child, or any adult who loves a fun read and loves great illustrations for their bookshelf!

St Anton’s university college is a cradle for privileged young men and women. With its Elysian lush green lawns and buildings of golden sandstone, it seems like a place where nothing bad could ever happen. One weekend, members of the college cricket team go to the mountains for a wild weekend away. Things spiral rapidly out of control, and a young Malaysian student they dragged along with them as part of a cruel prank goes missing. When the boy is found by some bushwalkers on a rock ledge, barely clinging to life, most people think it’s because of a fall, but the St Anton’s men know better. The stress of keeping their collective secret however becomes harder and harder to bear, and even the heavy wrought-iron fences of the college can’t keep out reality… Dark, dangerous, bloody and visceral, this is a story of power, prestige and the pack mentality that forms the underbelly of campus life at a prestigious university. With overtones of The Secret History meets Brett Easton Ellis, this is the debut of a thrilling new Australian writer.

There’s something about a campus novel that just sucks me right in (I should note that I don’t actually know if ‘campus novel’ is the right name for a novel set within a university, but I’m just going to roll with it). I love that the setting of campus novels are reduced and confined. The students all live on university grounds and the story rarely strays from that. It makes the book seem intimate. If you, like me, have a slight obsession with campus novels, you should really pick up The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Actually, if you love campus novels, that should’ve been the first novel you picked up!

Wild Things builds suspense and tension really well. When the cricket team go to the mountains for a weekend away, it doesn’t go well, and the way that each of these characters try and deal with that really shows their character. One character turns to religion, and another turns to alcohol and girls. Brigid has done well to capture the personality of these boys and project them onto the page with authenticity and believability. This book is set in a university where problems are covered up and money can buy you out of those problems. Bullying occurs almost every second, and everyone turns a blind eye. Brigid’s writing is detailed and emotive, and allows the reader to really understand the characters – all of them.

Earlier in the year, I went to a public lecture where Brigid discussed her difficulties when writing this book, and it really helped me better understand the story. Originally, the young Malaysian student who goes missing was of a different nationality, but it didn’t come across as believable and Brigid had to change it. Brigid also talked about how she had to make all of the boys unique from each other because there were a lot of characters in all of the scenes and she needed them to stand out. And I think she did this really well.

Okay, so I must note a negative. Brigid keeps some things a secret for most of the novel. For the most part, we don’t know what happened to the missing student in the mountains. But throughout the novel, little details are revealed about what happened. I think Brigid revealed too much, because at the end of the novel, when it’s described what happened, it’s pretty much what we’ve already been told, so there’s nothing to shock the reader.

Like this:

Donna’s latest book is all about new ways to make cooking easier. It features new flavour combinations and new shortcuts, designed to simplify life in the kitchen. It captures how most of us, including Donna, like to cook – with quick solutions for busy weeknights, and special dishes for weekends when you have more time up your sleeve. Each chapter contains clever and versatile ideas to put a spin on some of your favourites. So once you’ve mastered a dish, you can refer to a new section called ‘re-style’, showing you how to transform it into a chic starter for a dinner party, say, or a handy addition to a picnic.

It’s hard for me to review a cookbook – I feel I can’t give an honest opinion until I’ve had a go at making all the recipes. But then it’ll be four years before I can write a review, so I’m going to write it now, after only completing a few recipes.

Donna’s latest cookbook is designed to make cooking easy, for people like myself who don’t want to waste a lot of time cooking. I don’t want to slave away in the kitchen, since I live with roommates and I’m the only one who eats what I cook anyway. Just quietly, I’m a serial cereal-for-dinner offender.

I definitely think this cookbook is targeted at families or people who are cooking for more than just themselves. The recipes are detailed, plentiful, and take a bit of time to do. Even the chapter for ‘weekends’ seems a little over-catered for. The instructions are easy to follow; however, sometimes they aren’t detailed enough.

The first recipe I made was the Easy Banana Bread, and Donna’s instructions on mashing the bananas was a little vague. I assume you’re supposed to mash them as much as possible? But I mashed for what felt like hours and there were still lumps? Also, I personally feel that four bananas is too much for a banana bread recipe. It was too flavour heavy, not to mention the random bits of lumpy banana throughout. But at least I know now for when I decide to make it again.

‘The New Easy’ is beautifully laid out with stunning pictures and clear photographs of the meals (let’s just clarify that my banana bread DID NOT look like the picture, but when does a recipe ever look as good as in the book?).